20-Year-Old Borland Promo Piece Turns Up on Kitchen Counter

Software Industry veterans will appreciate this. I moved house recently. In the rotation of s t u f f that inevitably churns up in a move, this old notepad appeared:

It's a leather book that holds a notepad, like the kind waiters use at restaurants. I found myself using the notepad part to make grocery lists and communicate with other household members. It took a month or so into our new home and new habits before someone noticed the fine print inside the front cover:

I worked at Borland HQ in Scotts Valley, CA a year or two after this conference, 1991-1993 ish. It was a time when almost everyone I knew worked at either Borland, Seagate, Apple or Sun -- it was an exciting time, maybe even moreso in retrospect. (At the time we thought we might be participating in changing the world, but looking back we see that we actually were.)

Mind you, I was not at the helm of the world-changing decisions but apparently had knack for being in the right place at the right time -- and also had an eye for quality. Must've picked up this little notepad holder, said something along the lines of, "Dude, this is cool!" and taken it home.

Then somehow it survived a zillion moves, including a few across the USA and a couple overseas and back... until it turned up on my kitchen counter 20 years later.

Condition: good as new. Other condition: kinda spooky.. !

I was a young Assistant on the Public Relations team back then at Borland -- guess this story is proof that good promos never go out of style. :)